The tyranny of reclining your airplane seat

You may have already read the story. More likely, you’ve lived it — even if you rarely fly a commercial airline.

On a United flight on Sunday from Newark to Denver, a passenger fed up with people reclining their seat in front of him, used a $22 device called a knee defender. It attaches to the tray table of the seat in front of you and prevents the person sitting there from pushing their seat back. He shouldn’t have even had it on the plane because United and other airlines have banned the device.

You can probably fill in the rest. The woman in front was furious that she couldn’t exercise her God-given right to push her seat back. An airline attendant was called, voices were raised, matters got completely out of hand, and eventually the woman threw a glass of water in the guy’s face.

At that point the flight was diverted to Chicago, the two passengers were told to get off the plane and everyone else plane continued on to Denver. Nicely played everyone.

Frankly, it is tough to pick someone to root for in this spitting match. Who buys a device to lock a seat back? And how entitled do you have to be to get so upset about not being able to recline the seat that you end up getting thrown off the plane?

We can however, with certainty, identify the villain. It is United? Or, if you’d rather, every single one of those airlines that continues to cram passengers into ever-smaller spaces.

But that’s not the real problem. I think we’ve all accepted the fact that airline travel has become a cattle call. That getting in and out of your narrow seat is going to require contortionist skills. Most people smile politely and make the best of the incredibly cramped conditions. That’s just the way it is.

But the reclined seat is the final indignity. Just when you’ve resigned yourself to the tiny bit of air space you’ve been allotted for a trip that will take hours, the person in front of you blithely flips back the seat and takes away another six to eight inches. Just try to get out of your seat and go to the restroom now.

This raises two questions, only one of which is fixable.

First, why do people push their seat back when they know it’s going to inconvenience the person behind them? Can’t we appeal to everyone’s better nature and say, for the good of all, that it would be better if we didn’t do that.

Sorry, the answer is no. We’ve tried that. I wrote a column about this years ago, and the responses were breathtaking in their sense of entitlement. “I NEED to recline my seat,” one man wrote. “I’m TIRED.” There were tons of e-mails like that. Every person who ever sat in front of me must have written in. It was a landslide of “tough break pal, as long as the seat reclines, I’m doing it.”

Which brings us to the second question: Why do the seats recline anyway? It’s not as if the short little push-back makes anyone more comfortable. It’s six inches at most. You’re still sitting upright, in a cramped position.

So why do the airlines continue to pretend this is some luxury-liner perk. It’s not only pointless, it’s profoundly annoying.

In 2003 the Washington Post wrote a story on the inventor of the knee protector, who happened to be a Capitol Hill staffer. Although he said it was a simple matter of “protection,” the article made the better call. It is, the story said, “a recipe for air rage.”

Actually, that’s not the real recipe. If the seats were in a fixed, slightly reclined position, none of this would happen. The airlines are — whether they intend to or not — promoting this controversy. They can fix it in a week. Just lock up the seats so they don’t recline. Simple.

Because it’s clear the current system isn’t working. For proof let’s go back to our two passengers. They were sitting in the “economy plus” section, where passengers pay extra for a little more for a little more leg room.

How’d that work out, United? And how’d you like the national publicity that there was a near fist fight on one of your flights? Do you think that’s going to help ticket sales?

You know that would be a smart move? Fix the seats so they don’t recline. Problem solved. You’re welcome.